Men's Hoops Opens Home Season against UC Santa Cruz

Broncos Open 2002-2003 Home Season
The Santa Clara University men's basketball team will continue its 81st season of competition this week with three home games in the Leavey Center. Monday's contest against UC Santa Cruz will bein at 7 p.m., as will Wednesday night's game with Montana State and Saturday night's game with San Jose State. All three games will be broadcast live on the Bronco Radio Network, which consists of KDIA 1640 AM, KSCU 103.3 FM and SantaClaraBroncos.com. There are no television broadcasts scheduled for the three home games this week.

Head Coach Dick Davey
Now in his 11th season as Santa Clara's head coach, Dick Davey has a career coaching record of 174-117 (90-50 WCC), which includes three 20-win seasons. Davey has compiled a 91-32 record at home for a .740 winning percentage. He is the WCC's winningest active coach and is the first Bronco coach to lead Santa Clara to four 10-plus win seasons in WCC play. A three-time WCC Coach of the Year, Davey has coached Santa Clara to three WCC regular season titles, one WCC Tournament title, three NCAA Tournament appearances and four wins over top 25 teams. The dean of WCC head coaches, Davey served as a Bronco assistant for 15 seasons (1977-92) and is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Next Week
The Broncos will play Fresno State Wednesday night, December 4, at 7 p.m. in Fresno, Calif. Following that game Santa Clara will return home for a matchup with Pac-10 foe Washington, Saturday night December 7, at 7 p.m. in the Leavey Center. For tickets, call the Santa Clara Ticket office at 408/554-4660.

Charting the UC Santa Cruz Game
Santa Clara and UC Santa Cruz will meet for the first time Monday night when the two teams tipoff at 7 p.m. in the Leavey Center. UCSC is a NCAA Division III member institution located in nearby Santa Cruz, Calif.

Charting the Montana State Game
Santa Clara and Montana State have met two previous times in school history with the Broncos holding the all-time series advantage with their 2-0 record. Santa Clara and Montana State met twice during the 1939-40 season when the Broncos traveled to Bozeman for back-to-back games with the Bobcats. Santa Clara won the first meeting on January 3rd by a score of 44-25. The Broncos returned the next night for a 46-31 win, moving their season record to 10-1 at the time en route to a 17-3 season.

Charting the San Jose State Game
Santa Clara and cross-town rival San Jose State have met 91 previous times entering Saturday night's game, with the Broncos holding a 65-26 all-time series advantage. The series first started during the 1909-10 season when the Spartans handed the Broncos a 54-30 loss in Santa Clara. Since 1990 the two teams have met 11 times with Santa Clara claiming nine victories during that time span, including last year's thrilling comeback win in the Leavey Center. This year's contest has a little more meaning than usual as the two teams are competing as part of the new Rivalry Series created between the two schools that will have an overall winner for school whose teams win more head-to-head battles throughout the year. Currently the Broncos hold a 13-point lead over the Spartans through the first five meetings of the year. Santa Clara has defeated SJSU in volleyball, men and women's soccer and men and women's cross country.

Last Season Against the SpartansKyle Bailey hit a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining to lift Santa Clara to a 65-63 victory over San Jose State on Tuesday night as the Broncos avoided their worst start in 37 years by overcoming a 21-point deficit. Steve Ross scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half for Santa Clara (1-3), which hadn't lost more than three in a row to start a season since 1964. Jordan Legge, who finished with 16 points, set a freshman free throw record for Santa Clara, making 10-of-13. Brian Jones held the old mark with nine. Bailey finished with 15 points. Santa Clara, which missed six of his first seven attempts from 3-point range, relied on the long shot to climb back into the contest in the second half. Ross hit three consecutive 3-pointers and the Broncos used an 11-0 run to tie the game at 43-all with 13:22 remaining.
San Jose State responded with a 14-2 run, with Alvarez scoring eight points, to take a 12-point edge five minutes later. The Spartans had a 63-62 lead with over a minute to play, but then turned the ball over with 14 seconds left to set up Bailey's heroics.

Broncos Win Season Opener over Pacific
Junior guard Kyle Bailey made four consecutive free throws in the final 16 seconds Friday night as Santa Clara held off University of the Pacific 78-72 at Spanos Center.
Bailey led four Santa Clara players in double figures with 16 points. Bailey, who was 8 of 8 from the line, calmly sank two free throws after Demetrius Jackson (15 points) brought Pacific within 74-72 with 18 seconds left. Bailey then stole the ball from Jackson and made two more free throws with 10.7 seconds remaining to seal the victory. Santa Clara, which led 41-27 at halftime, increased its lead to 47-29 on Cord Anderson's 3-point basket two minutes into the second half. The Broncos made nine of their first 12 3-point attempts and were 11 of 17 from beyond the arc for the game. Pacific still trailed 60-45 with 8:31 remaining, but the Tigers went on a 16-2 run to draw within a point. Pacific then took its first lead since midway through the first half when Jackson made a 3-pointer to put the Tigers ahead 64-62 with 3:46 remaining. But Santa Clara immediately responded with a follow tip-in by Brad Anderson, a driving layup and free throw by freshman Brandon Rohe (15 points) and a 3-pointer by sophomore Ethan Rohde. The Broncos then made their free throws after Pacific twice cut the margin to two points in the final 27 seconds.

Bronco Drop Exhibition Contest
Santa Clara played just one exhibition game during the preseason, a 65-64 loss to the Olympic Club on Nov. 15. Both of the Broncos' returning starters, Kyle Bailey and Jordan Legge, missed the game due to injury as did key reserves Scott Borchart and J.R. Patrick. The Broncos started three former walk-ons in Brad and Cord Anderson and Ethan Rohde. Bakari Althiemer led the Broncos in scoring with 17 points, while Rohde chipped-in 11. Jim Howell was the game's rebounding leader with 16.

The Injury Bug
Despite getting Kyle Bailey back for the season opener, the injury bug has continued to plague Santa Clara. It claimed another victim during practice prior to the season-opener, as sophomore Bakari Altheimer suffered a stress fracture in his foot. He is expected to miss 3-6 weeks. Jordan Legge (knee) and Scott Borchart (shoulder) have been out for the last several weeks and are questionable for the home opener against UC Santa Cruz. Transfer J.R. Patrick underwent knee surgery in September and could return to the team in December. Alex Kargbo (back) and Travis Niesen (ankle) also missed time during the preseason but both played in the exhibition game and the season opener and are expected to be at full strength for the three home games this week.

SCU Games Broadcast On Bronco Radio Network
Santa Clara University men's basketball will continue to enjoy the widest radio coverage area in its history this season through the Bronco Radio Network. Radio Stations on the network include 10,000-watt KDIA-AM (1640) in San Francisco, Calif. and KSCU-FM (103.3) in Santa Clara. Popular play-by-play announcer Dave Lewis will return for his eighth season. Every Santa Clara men's basketball game will also be available via the Internet on the athletic department's official athletic website at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com.

Broncos Own WCC's Winningest Program
Historically speaking, the Santa Clara's men's basketball program owns the most victories of any team in the West Coast Conference since the league began play in the 1952-53 season. The Broncos have a league-leading 820 victories in 51 seasons for a 16.1 wins-per-season average. In league contests, Santa Clara has a league-leading 406 victories. Over the last seven seasons, the Broncos have won 61 percent of their games which is the second-winningest program in the WCC during that time.

Live Web Coverage of Bronco Basketball
This season Santa Clara athletics will enter its second season with a new feature that allows fans to follow each home game with a live statistics tracker. Users with Internet access can log onto the official athletic site for Santa Clara athletics (www.SantaClaraBroncos.com) and click on live box score to receive real-time updated statistics direct from the official courtside scoring computer. Santa Clara became the first school on the Official College Sports Network to launch the new FANSlive service using a specially-designed browser which provides fans a visually compelling alternative to watch Bronco basketball on the web.